Systems and methods herein generally relate to methods and systems that create and provide scanned images, and more particularly to methods and systems that verify the authenticity of scanned images.
Scanning of documents is widely practiced, but suffers from some drawbacks. When a multi-function device (MFD) is used to scan the documents, the device may inform the user that the scan has been delivered, but the user has no easy-to-use way of knowing exactly what the device delivered, and may resort to later visual inspection of the files in the location to which they have been delivered, if that is possible (often it is not). Many things could go wrong with delivery and storage of the scans: bytes may be dropped en-route due to bugs in various systems, despite the best intentions, or due to malicious activity; data may also be substituted deliberately at a later date; etc.
There are many use cases where it is worthwhile to be able to verify that the scan data was delivered correctly, that the scan originated in a known and verifiable location, by a known and verifiable person, and that it has not been tampered with or compromised since it was scanned and deposited. These are “chain-of-custody” and safe delivery guarantees from inception onward.